Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo
Senior Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO Athletics Board (Bab) is ready to host the country’s top track runners when they face off in the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) Inter-provincial Championships at White City Stadium on Sunday.
The championships were initially set for September, but were postponed after Naaz failed to get Government clearance. The event will be held under strict Covid-19 guidelines.
Only five track events; 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 5 000m will be staged on the day after relays and field competitions were scrapped.
Each of the country’s 10 provinces is restricted to fielding just two athletes in the men’s and women’s categories, meaning 20 athletes will face off in each event.
Bab chairman Manuel Mpofu said White City Stadium will be disinfected on Saturday morning before athletes and support staff are allowed into the facility.
He said only registered athletes and staff will be allowed into the stadium.
“We’re excited that the event is finally going ahead. The athletes have been longing to compete and this event will be used as a dress rehearsal for future events. No spectators will be allowed into the venue. Only athletes and support staff will be allowed entry. That is why we reduced the number of athletes to only two per event per province for the men and women competitions in line with Covid-19 protocols,” said Mpofu.
“We will only use one gate and all the other gates will remain locked. Those allowed access will be screened at the gate and their details recorded,” he said.
Bulawayo is likely to field more than two athletes per event in case other provinces fail to send participants.
Tendai Tagara, the Naaz president, said communication has been sent to provinces to indicate how many athletes they are sending, so that the association makes contingency plans in the event they face challenges in coming up with squads.
Naaz has also asked Bab to have extra athletes on standby.
“These are open championships where juniors can challenge seniors, but because of the strict Covid-19 protocols, we have limited the number of participants to two per event in both the men’s and women’s categories. This will ensure that we have a strong field of highly competitive participants,” said Tagara.
“We know some provinces might have challenges fielding athletes in certain events, hence we’ve asked them to communicate with the host province so that if there are openings, Bulawayo takes up those slots.” — @ZililoR
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